Family Pedals

Bill Brodegard joins me in Episode 11 to share how his family's "bike year" is going. Last spring they sold their car and committed to the adventure of a car-free lifestyle for one year. He talks about what he has discovered through the project, whether they will continue once the year ends, and his theory about how life is like slicing tomatoes.

• The Bike Year
• Check out their homemade, duct-taped bike tent!
• Yuba Spicy Curry
• Perennial Cycle
• Surly Moonlander (though sadly not the tricked out one Bill describes)
• 
  

Be sure to follow Bill's blog and Instagram for more of his family's adventures in Minneapolis. You can find me on Instagram or by leaving a comment below.

If you'd like to support the show, please share it with someone you know and leave a review on iTunes. Thank you for listening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rachel Jonat, founder of the Minimalist Mom blog, joins me for Episode 10. We chat about her experience with active transportation in very different locations: Vancouver, on the Isle of Man, and now in small town British Columbia. She illuminates the unexpected benefits of cycling in a smaller city and the ways in which active transportation is supported differently there. Below you'll find links to everything we mentioned in the show:

• Minimalist Mom
• The Month I Paid $30/mile to Drive
• Getting There is Half--or All--the Fun
• More posts about being car-free
• Five Kids, One Condo
• Rachel's books: Do Less, The Minimalist Mom, and The Joy of Doing Nothing
• Minimalist Mom Facebook page

If you'd like to connect with Rachel, you can also find her on Instagram. Be sure to check out her latest book that just released early this month: The Joy of Doing Nothing.

If you'd like to support the show, please share it with someone you know and leave a review on iTunes. Thank you for listening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave Cohen, the founder of Vbike, joins me for Episode 9. We have a wide ranging discussion that covers Vbike origins and role in the community, how electric bikes can help mitigate poor infrastructure, ways bike shops can cater to a wider clientele, the dangers of automobilism, and how biking can engage our senses and create a deeper sense of connection to the world around us. If you are interested in hearing more about the concepts behind automobilism, check out this New York Times Magazine article Dave recommends. Here are links to everything we discussed in the show:

• Pedal Express
• Vbike
• Winter biking guide
• E-assit primer
• Local Motion
• The Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
• Bar Mitts
• Bafang electric kits
• Yuba elMundo

You can email Dave at dave (at) vbikesolutions.org or follow Vbike on Facebook. You can find me on Instagram @familypedals.

If you'd like to support the show, please share it with someone you know and leave a review on iTunes. Thank you for listening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lindsay Bayley is a planner for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. She joins me on the show to talk about how she became car-free, how parking policies affect livability, and how to get involved at the local level to support active transportation policies. See below for all the resources we discussed in the episode.

• The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup
• Victoria Transport Policy Institute
• Charles Marohn from Strong Towns, who also has a podcast
• Gabe Klein
• Workcycles Kr8 Bakfiets

You can find Lindsay on Twitter and me on Instagram. Thanks so much for listening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elsbeth is back for another episode, this time talking about her business--Four Star Family Cyclery. She shares what they do (cargo bike rentals! mobile service! no mansplaining!), why she started the business, and what it's like to be a woman in a male dominated industry. Be sure to listen all the way to the end to hear her thoughts about the freedom her family's gained from the limits of life without a car.

Check out the shownotes to find all of the links mentioned in this episode.

And a special thank you to everyone who has rated and reviewed the show on iTunes! I've had a lot of fun launching this project and I appreciate knowing you are out there listening and enjoying the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elsbeth Cool was car-free for years in Chicago before becoming a cargo bike enthusiast and now owner of Four Star Family Cyclery. In this episode she shares how she went from walking and using public transit to riding all-year round. We have a great conversation about the evolution of her biking set-up, her advice for biking through the winter, and how she handles the curiosity and judgment that comes with biking as a family. Tune back in next time for part two where she shares more about why she started her business, what they do, and what it's like being a female entrepreneur in a male-dominated industry.

You can find links to everything we mentioned in the shownotes. I'm on Instagram and Elsbeth is on both Instagram and Twitter.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lisa Corriveau--aka Spokesmama--joins me for Episode 5 to talk about living car-free in Vancouver, British Columbia. She shares how she started cycling, how her family uses car-share, which cargo bikes she prefers, and how she advocates for active transportation both through her work teaching cycling classes and as a member of Vancouver's Active Transportation Policy Council.

To find links to everything mentioned in the show, head over to Family Pedals for the shownotes. You can find me on Instagram @familypedals, or send me an email at [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Stosberg joins me for Episode 4. He lives a car-lite life in Bloomington, Indiana with his wife and two kids. In addition to riding all over town, he regularly goes bike camping with his family, including a ten-day tour of Southern Indiana in the summer of 2016. He is writing a book called Let's Go Family Bike Camping that will include stories from his many trips, detailed gear explanations, and tips for making these adventures a success.

To find links to everything mentioned in the show, head over to Family Pedals for the shownotes. You can find me on Instagram @familypedals, or send me an email at [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My friend Caitlin Macklin joins me for Episode 3. She is a parent, teacher, and active transportation enthusiast living in Austin, Texas. We discuss how she's learned to be flexible and creative when facing physical injuries that have kept her off her bike, how she created a car-sharing arrangement with another family down the street, and how she moved her schoolhouse to its new location via bicycle.

I would love to hear your feedback on the show! You can find me on Instagram @familypedals, or send me an email at [email protected].

To find links to everything mentioned in the show, including videos of the schoolhouse move, head to Family Pedals for the show notes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode two I interview Chris Wharton. Chris and his family live in Gilbert, Arizona--a suburb in the sprawling Phoenix metropolitan area. A few years ago he sold their second car and began incorporating more utilitarian cycling into his everyday life. We touch on a variety of topics including:

• How and why they became a one-car family
• How he travels with his two kids by bike
• How he has fostered a love of cycling in his children
• The biggest challenges of being a one-car family in Phoenix
• How he survives biking in extreme weather conditions
• Recommendations for family's considering incorporating more active transportation in their lives

Chris brings an interesting perspective as a professor at Arizona State University who studies behavior change, healthy defaults, and voluntary simplicity. If you want to read or hear more from him, you can follow his blog Practically Awesome or listen to the personal finance podcast Matrimoney he hosts with his wife, Kelsey.

You can find links to everything we mention in the show notes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.